Gig review: Chvrches, Edinburgh

DAVID POLLOCK

“WE KNOW there are other activities you could have done tonight… sparklers, fireworks…” pointed out Lauren Mayberry while thanking her Bonfire Night crowd. “You’ll just have to make do with a f***load of lasers instead,” piped up Martin ‘Doc’ Docherty from behind his keyboard, and he wasn’t wrong. Balancing the warmth and humanity of these three clean-cut indie musicians from Glasgow, their neon-streaked lightshow is more apocalyptic than ever, playing out as patterns of red, green and blue laser constellations across the entire ceiling.

Chvrches - Corn Exchange, Edinburgh

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This show was the last Scottish date the trio will play in support of last year’s debut album The Bones of What You Believe, Mayberry pointed out, and it’s a testament to how well-judged and truly enjoyable that record was that they’ve had so much mileage out of it. As such, there was an air of triumph to proceedings, and a real sense of joyful relief from the band as they come to the end of this part of their journey.

Mayberry, ever-chatty and endearingly human for an artist playing to a couple of thousand, recalled once making a joke while propping up a local band bill in Glasgow about being the first and weakest contestant into the Hunger Games. Nobody laughed. “And now we’ve got a song in the next Hunger Games film, so suck it.”

That song, Dead Air, was a welcome addition to a set which has consisted entirely of their debut album for a while now (Gun, Recover and The Mother We Share were all deserved highlights for the audience, as ever). That sense of triumph was well-earned – now we wait to see how they can follow it up.